Got on the way as early as we could as had a long drive, 250 miles down to Avignon. Not a long way in a car but it is in a 3.5 ton motorhome with a little car in tow. And especially when there are quite a few mountains on the way to be driven round, over and under. Tomtom was instructed to use motorways for the first half of the drive .. to make sure we didn’t find ourselves either heading off into Switzerland without a Swiss motorway pass on either vehicle or worse, up and over a wibblt wobbly mountain pass. So motorway right to the other side of Grenoble and then at Valence we picked up the N road which runs pretty well alongside the toll road. We have a bit of a ... read more

9/6//23 A stroll round Lac de Montriond Headed for the mountains today again as we enjoy them so much. Had spoken to someone on the campsite who recommended Lake Montriond so we chose that for our day out. Took the same road as we came back on last time (there are only 3 main routes through the mountains and the 3rd has no connecting road through to the other 2). The road goes through a massively towering rocky gorge with some very windy bits for the first few miles. Montriond is just before Morzine which we suspect is a bit of a favourite spot with the British as there were several UK plated cars when we got to the lake and later also at the supermarket we stopped at. Stopped for a nice lunch at a ... read more

First job for the morning was a trip to campsite reception. We were due to move on on Friday after 4 nights here then 2 days somewhere in the mountains before Avignon where we have, unusually booked as think it might be busy. We’ve decided to stay another 2 nights and go directly to Avignon from here. The mountains here are gorgeous, our pitch is excellent and we are so nicely set up here it’s a shame to disturb ourselves. Next activity was a walk from the campsite to the nature reserve which runs alongside and up the little peninsula the campsite is built on. We came first of all to a bird hide overlooking a little lake and it was positively heaving with birds. Ducks, all sorts of ducks and cormorants. We watched a young ... read more

Up and away just after 9am and heading due South. Bob had carefully plotted a Tomtom route which very definitely avoided Geneva. Last time we went that direction, heading for France, we accidentally drove through Geneva at 5pm on a Friday and it was Scary. That route also involved some very windy mountainous stretches which we wanted to avoid if we could. We also have the complication of no Swiss Vignette this trip so if we accidentally stray across the border on a motorway it could prove very expensive. No problem and I can report that we arrived safely at our French campsite in Thonon-les-Bains without venturing into Switzerland. We will pop across later in the week in the Smart car but only on local roads. I want to revisit Villeneuve where we stayed in September ... read more

Driving day today and not sure how busy we would find the campsite we were heading for, being Saturday and weekend, so got up at a reasonable time and were on the way before 10am. We were not using any motorways but the road for half the journey was dualed so very few photos were taken. Still in the flat area of France. Very arable agricultural with vast fields spreading out to either side. Pleasant enough and a nice easy drive for Bob but not lending itself to beautiful photos. We passed through very few towns or villages, the road in places seemed quite new so was probably built to bypass. Just hints of church spires and a signpost to a town and the camera was ready to spring into action but quickly back to the ... read more